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September 30, 2017December 30, 2017

Telephoto Landscape Photography

The Lone Guardian – Nikon 70-200mm f/8 1/32 sec ISO 100

When one thinks to Landscape photography immediately associates the concept with wide angle lenses. I’m not an exception since in my bag I hold a lot of wide angle lenses, included the last one, a fabulous Irix 11mm f/4 which can capture whatever I see from an ear to the other one.

But landscape photography is not only a wide angle lens matter, landscape photography can be done even, and sometimes better, with long telephotos, like a 200mm.

Really? Yes, obviously it depends from the weather and visibility conditions, and on the view point the photographer can reach, or again from the variety the landscape can offer. Let’s take my latest experience in high mountain, precisely in the Dolomites mountain range, in Italy.

The day was almost perfect, the visibility was wide and far, no haze or fog and a lot of clouds which were forming themselves at the ground and raising to a blue sky. A Joy for my two wide angle lenses, I’ve shot a lot with the 11mm but same with my old and faithful 16-35mm Nikon, until I’ve placed the Irix on a tripod to capture a time-lapse of the scene. In that moment I realized that there was a lot laying before me, a lot of small things, far away scenes, mountains, forming clouds, refuges, people, in one word: details, but at the same time: subjects.

So I screwed on my Nikon 200mm and I began to look through it, like a Captain on his ship, and I started to find a lot of new photos I haven’t noticed before. I had a lot of fun in isolating details, small subjects, far and unnoticed things. After that, more as a curiosity, I’ve gone further, why not? I’ve mounted my 2x teleconverter on the lens and started to check the landscape at 400mm and again I found a lot more things to bring home with me.

So, what’s the final consideration here: landscape photography with long lenses offers to the observer a lot of new opportunities, just be prepared to grab them. Look for small things in the far distances, streaks of light that usually are too small to be noticed on a large picture, clouds that are just forming or too small to influence a wide landscape, small monuments, landmarks, people, buildings, whatever that can be considered a good subject itself.

Here I got some samples of what I captured that day, I hope this will inspire you for you next shoots and photographic adventures.